The present invention generally pertains to article carriers used with conveyor systems that transport article carriers past a given location.
It is known to use a conveyor system to transport article past a radiation source. Such a systems includes a plurality of article carriers; and a process conveyor for transporting the article carriers past the radiation source, with the radiation source being mounted perpendicular to the conveyor and disposed along an approximately horizontal axis for irradiating the articles as they are transported past the radiation source by the process conveyor. It is also known to reorient an article carrier suspended from a power-and-free conveyor by 180 degrees after the article carrier has been transported past the radiation source and to transport the reoriented article carrier past the radiation source again so that the articles carried by the article carrier can be irradiated from the opposite side to symmetrically complement the irradiation during the initial transportation past the radiation source. The article carrier is suspended from the power-and-free conveyor track at both its leading and trailing ends, and is reoriented by diverting the leading end to an unpowered branch track that loops off to one side and then rejoins the main track, and then causing the trailing end to move along the powered main track so that the trailing end lakes the lead and pulls the diverted end from the branch track to the main track in a trading position.